In retail, every tap, dip or swipe matters. And when your payment terminal goes quiet, you’re not just losing revenue, you’re losing customer trust.

For retailers, the risk of downtime from bank outages is more than an inconvenience - it’s a business threat. That’s where dual acquiring and acquirer failover come into play. But what exactly do these terms mean, and why should retailers care?

What is Dual Acquiring and Acquirer Failover?

• Dual Acquiring:  

At its core, dual acquiring (or multi-acquiring) is about increasing your chances of a successful sale. By routing transactions through more than one acquiring bank, retailers can boost payment success rates and improve conversions. If one bank experiences downtime, transactions are seamlessly routed to the other bank – keeping sales going and customers happy.

• Acquirer Failover:  

Think of it as your safety net. If your primary acquirer experiences downtime, your transactions are automatically routed to a secondary acquirer - no manual input, no waiting, no lost sales.

Together, these features form a bulletproof layer of transaction resilience, ensuring you can keep trading, even when the unexpected happens.

Why this matters?

In South Africa, acquiring bank downtime isn’t just theoretical - it’s a real, regular challenge. Outages spike at month-end, especially around payday weekends, when payment systems are under intense pressure.

Recent data shows:

• Banking outages in SA surged by over 30% year-on-year
• These outages most commonly occur during peak trading times - month-end, weekends and public holidays.
• Retailers can lose thousands per hour in missed sales when card transactions fail.

For retailers, this means:

• Frustrated customers walking out without making a purchase.
• Increased pressure on staff to explain delays or suggest manual workarounds.
• A knock to your brand’s reliability and customer loyalty.

‍Integrated payments with built-in protection.

At adumo, we understand how much every transaction means to a retailer. That’s why we offer dual acquiring and acquirer failover as part of our integrated payments solutions.

• Seamless switching between acquiring banks in real-time.
• Zero disruption to your operations - even if a bank goes down.
• Multi-acquirer reconciliation - reconciliation stays hassle-free.
• Fully integrated, no additional hardware or complex setup needed.

With adumo, you’re not locked into a single bank or left vulnerable when systems fail. We ensure your business stays open, functional and profitable - no matter what.

In today’s competitive retail landscape, reliability is everything. If you can’t process a sale, someone else will. That’s why more and more South African retailers are choosing payment partners who don’t just process payments - they protect them.

Ready to safeguard your payments and give your customers the smooth, reliable experience they expect - every time?

‍Let’s talk.  Contact us today to explore how failover solutions can help you stay transacting.